Sermon: "Let us love one another"

CIVIC SERVICE ATTENDED BY THE MAYOR OF RUTHIN, COUNCILLOR PAT ASTBURY, AND RUTHIN TOWN COUNCIL. THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST PETER IN RUTHIN. SUNDAY 8 JULY 2007. 

I John 4.19. "We love, because he first loved us."

Fifty years ago last Friday, the Church Fete was held in Woolton, Liverpool. It was different from all other Church Fetes before or since, and it is well remembered today because it was the first time John Lennon (aged 16) and Paul McCartney (aged 15) met, and the first seeds of the Beatles experience were sown. John's band was playing in the Church Hall when Paul came in, turned John's guitar upside down and improvised on it. That was the beginning of their friendship, and of their musical collaboration. 

It's difficult to imagine such a meeting in a place like that now. 15 and 16 year old boys don't go near Church Fetes, and if a gang of them suddenly appeared the organisers would probably send for the police. Our communities have fractured. The generations don't socialize together much. The Church is no longer a central point around which the whole community rallies. There is the religious culture, and there is the secular culture of the community. Different generations and groups have their own lives, their own ways of thinking. The notion of one community in one place is much weaker. 

But there are a few bright exceptions, and this morning is one of them. The Mayor of Ruthin and the own Council have come to the Parish Church to ask for the blessing of God on their service within this community. Here's something to be welcomed and celebrated, something we can build on. 

Church and community need to build together, if only because we have the same problems. Disillusion with religious institutions is matched by disillusion with political institutions. Difficulty in encouraging people to commit themselves to voluntary activities is similar to difficulty in encouraging people to commit themselves to the life of the Church. Religious leaders have a bad press, and political leaders have a bad press. More positively, we have a common aim: to help create a society which is united, inclusive and outward looking. 

How do we go about this? The First Letter of John chapter 4 puts it very simply: Let us love one another. But this seems so simple as to be quite vague. Love can mean anything or nothing. But the ancients were more precise than we are. They had one word to describe emotional, romantic love between lovers, another word to denote the family love between parents, children and grandparents, and yet another word to describe the love a person has for their country or their town or their football team. And in I John we are given another word again. This kind of love is one that we can show to everyone. It is not restricted to particular people with whom we stand in particular relationships. We could call it, listening to one another - really listening, giving our whole mind and attention to them. Or we could call it, Caring - taking people seriously and seeking their good. But mostly today we call it Respect. 

If we respect others, even though they may be of a different generation, another faith, another race and language, a way of life we are not used to, an opposed political position, we are fulfilling that last commandment Jesus gave on the night before he died: Love one another, as I have loved you. 

Those additional words matter. Respect cannot be generated out of the air. It is an attitude that grows within us as we become more conscious that God respects us, and cares for us, and listens to us. I John said the same: We love, because he first loved us. The more certain we are that we are loved by God, the more natural it should be for us to show that same love in our families and communities and in our national and international life. We will respect others, whoever they are and however they think, because God has respected us, whoever we are and however we think. 

A Sunday school teacher had ended her Bible story and began asking the small children some questions. "Why do you think" she asked, "does God love us all so very much?" There was silence for some time while the children wrinkled their brows and scratched their heads and thought hard. Why does God love us all so very much? Suddenly a little girl's hand shot up. "Because he has only one of each of us."  There's no better answer than that. He has only one of each of us. 

In the past, some national leaders have attempted to create a strong community by suppressing the differences between people, by destroying their individuality. But a mature and healthy community arises from the opposite conviction: that there is only one of each of us. If we respect the uniqueness of another person and allow that uniqueness to enrich the life of society as a whole, we are showing real love and we are building a community of love. If we respect the rights of those who may be very different from us, we are loving one another as Christ loved us. In fact, S.John came to the conclusion that love is all we need: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And come to think of it, those two boys who met at the Woolton Church Fete 50 years ago said the same thing as well - All You Need is Love.   

Preached by: Reverend Canon Dr Raymond Bailey at St Peter's Collegiate Church on Sunday,8th July 2007